Gavin Atkin
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Posts posted by Gavin Atkin
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I've read and re-read my email and there seems to be no doubt: I am now permitted to tell the concertinists of Kent that we're planning a session at the Bell & Jorrocks pub, Frittenden, Kent on Sunday the 16th August 2009, featuring visiting American concertinist Jody Kruskal!
Email me or if necessary ring me on 07985 522734 if you have any queries that can't be answered using Google!
Cheers,
Gav
I didn't know Jody will be on a European tour in August. He usually announces his itinery. Perhaps I have missed it. Jody is great and a must see/hear. Sadly, it's a bit far for me to come from North London.
Chris
Yup, anglo fans should hear him if they can - he's seriously good and this is an opportunity to do so in a small room and an informal atmosphere.
Gav
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I've read and re-read my email and there seems to be no doubt: I am now permitted to tell the concertinists of Kent that we're planning a session at the Bell & Jorrocks pub, Frittenden, Kent on Sunday the 16th August 2009, featuring visiting American concertinist Jody Kruskal!
Email me or if necessary ring me on 07985 522734 if you have any queries that can't be answered using Google!
Cheers,
Gav
Will it be lunchtime or evening?
regards,
John Wild
Evening! It'll be in the EVENING folks. Arrive at lunchtime and you'll have a while to wait ;-)
Gav
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I've read and re-read my email and there seems to be no doubt: I am now permitted to tell the concertinists of Kent that we're planning a session at the Bell & Jorrocks pub, Frittenden, Kent on Sunday the 16th August 2009, featuring visiting American concertinist Jody Kruskal!
Email me or if necessary ring me on 07985 522734 if you have any queries that can't be answered using Google!
Cheers,
Gav
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Random Jig? Hmmm! I know it better as Random Notes. I believe James Hill wrote the tune.
Chris
Well it's in 6/8 so it might be a jig... or a march, but in the abc I posted it's simply called 'Random'
I too think it's a James Hill composition but I won't know for sure until funds allow me to buy the tune book from the bagpipe museum in Morpeth.Pete.
Thinking on... If I remember right in the the James Hill collection from which I got the Random it was just called that - 'Random'. No notes, no Jig, and just the one word.
Gav
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Although I wasn't there, I got to see some very nice photos of the weekend, posted on Facebook, including some of Geoff with Helen's McCann in bits and they gave me a flavour of what the weekend was like. I went to the recent ECMW in Ampthill (closer to London!) and many of the people in the photos taken at Bradfield were also at the ECMW, a bit like deja-vu really, innit Gavin?
Chris
Yes Chris. A lot like deja vu, but with more jokes and I didn't notice the repetition... ;-)
G
More jokes? Surely not? Does the repetition you refer to, refer to jokes or tunes? I never make the same joke twice...well, not in the same company. And if it is a good tune, it is worth playing more than once.
Chris
More jokes than deja vu, not more than Ampthill :-)
Gav
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I'm intrigued and baffled in equal parts. Some time in the middle 80s, I had the idea of taking the A and C musics of the Random Jig and making a step-hop of it. I'm just a beast for a good step-hop, which this certainly was, so no-one should be surprised. I can't recall Florida playing it, but the late lamented Melons for Ecstasy certainly did. I think it was the only tune I ever played on my duet with that band. Btw, if anyone here remembers him, Melons' anglo tina man John Gasson was a lovely friend and a great player and round our way we miss him still.
But back to the tune. The A music this lot are playing is identical, but the B could be a nicely worked mis-hearing. It might even be better than the original. I guess the abc for the Random Jig is out there if anyone wants to try the comparison for themselves.
Thinking of the chords, I used to like to play the first bit of the B music (in D) to these chords D B Em A. Try it...
Gav
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Although I wasn't there, I got to see some very nice photos of the weekend, posted on Facebook, including some of Geoff with Helen's McCann in bits and they gave me a flavour of what the weekend was like. I went to the recent ECMW in Ampthill (closer to London!) and many of the people in the photos taken at Bradfield were also at the ECMW, a bit like deja-vu really, innit Gavin?
Chris
Yes Chris. A lot like deja vu, but with more jokes and I didn't notice the repetition... ;-)
G
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Pedantry's useful sometimes Chris. While working for a living today another editor got exasperated about something and told me I was being pedantic - and naturally I decided to take it as a compliment! ;-)
Gav
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Julie and I have set up a new weblog intended to provide entertainment for concertina enthusiasts and a contact point for event organisers and other folks interested in booking us. Yes, if anyone wants us we are available for festivals, clubs, concertina events and the rest at very reasonable prices. Take a look at http://www.julieandhersqueeze.com .
There isn't a huge amount of material on the site yet, but there is a jolly new MP3 of our version of I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter!
I should mention that we'll be at Bradfield again this year. Roger D's right - it is a great do if you like singers and concertinas, and especially that lovely hilly country behind Sheffield.
Gav
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Gavin,
Do you know Gary Coover? Lives in Fayetteville Arkansas, and plays the Jeffries duet very convincingly and with style (he played for is in Palestine last month). He started out years ago absolutely entranced with Michael Hebbert's playing. He doesn't visit the Forum much at all, but I could put you in touch with him if you like....he is, like you, a real fan of the Jeffries duet. He is planning a trip to the UK this year; you guys should get together, add in Michael Hebbert, and march through the town square playing the Dambusters' March, or something. Maybe you could shake a few new players out of those trees...if you could find them some instruments before Alan converts any more to Anglos!
Cheers,
Dan
I'd very much like to be able to contact him - from what you asy, he and I have quite a bit in common!
Gav
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This is not to cast aspersions on duet players....they are a great bunch, and duets are very fine instruments with much to recommend them....but rather just a reality check against any delusions of coming popularity grandeur. Duets would have a lot of ground to catch up to the Anglo or even the English concertina in popularity. My guess is that most duet players are not particularly concerned with either popularity of their system or whether it is the 'future' to really care too much about it. And most duet players I know are not particularly of the young-avant-garde-hot-trendsetter mold, which is likely what it would take for duets to catch on big time.
Back to my Anglo and my English.
All the best,
Dan
Well, Dan, I would be concerned about the popularity of the Jeffries duet if I thought I could win the argument in their favour. But as it is, I'm pessimistic.
Despite my efforts over many years, so far as I know I haven't succeeded in persuading anyone it's an instrument worth learning, or indeed that they can learn to play it. I've stopped worrying about an issue I seem unable to do anything about, yet I remain convinced that both points are true: the Jeffries duet is capable of some great music and it has a perfectly playable system. I hope someone out there takes my point, and can be persuaded to carry the Jeffries duet on for another generation.
Gav
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I'm also on there under my own name, and have been for two years or so. It can be a real time waster, but on the other hand its also a very good way of staying in touch with others (and occasionally for finding out about up and coming events)
Irene Shettle
Me too - search on Gavin Atkin, sign me up and appropriate my 240+ friends for your own...
I never do anything by halves ;-)
Gav
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'Tina players in the South-East of England may be interested to know that Alan Day has kindly agreed to host a Concertina Rendezvous at the Bell & Jorrocks from 10.30am on the 4th April as part of the Frittenden Festival - Sing, Dance and Play event.
This is a bounce - just to remind you good concertina folks this event is happening a week from tomorrow. Please don't miss it, unless you really have to!
Gav
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'Tina players in the South-East of England may be interested to know that Alan Day has kindly agreed to host a Concertina Rendezvous at the Bell & Jorrocks from 10.30am on the 4th April as part of the Frittenden Festival - Sing, Dance and Play event.
Alan hardly needs any introduction, but for those who don't know him I should say that he's an excellent anglo concertina player, part of the brains behind the splendid English and Anglo International CDs, and a popular fellow in both the concertina and traditional music worlds. His planned theme for this event is Concertinas: the future?
Other concertina players you will see around the festival include anglo players Andy Turner and Steve Harrison, and myself.
A link to the full programme is below:
Frittenden Festival - Sing, Dance and Play
There will be sessions in the pub after the Rendezvous event, as well as a concert in the village's Memorial Hall in the afternoon.
I should add that Frittenden is in Kent and can be found just a few miles south of Maidstone. GoogleMap showing the location of Frittenden
Gavin
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Gav and Julie -- congratulations. You two certainly make beautiful music together.
Many thanks Hereward, Steve, Chris and Jody! It certainly was a great day, thanks to our friends and family.
Gav
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PS - Julie and I got married last week, and I thought some of you might be entertained by this short video from mthe reception:
Gav
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Chris -
Your point about duet players throwing in handfulls of chords is exactly what I'm thinking about - though I guess we'll fix these kinds of things in the mastering.
Thanks particularly for your point about valve pre-amps. There's always a danger that the snake oil will creep into anything about sound, and I feel this might be one of those situations. What's more, I can't justify investing in an expensive anything!
Jody - I'll try to remember your excellent suggestion about putting up some samples. However, I fully expect to haver to put in some hard work before we've got something that seems worthy!
Gav
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Jody:
Having made several albums with the Florida dance band chaps I don't think I'd disagree with any of the points you make. Sound quality probably matters more to us than to our audience, though there are exceptions. For example, some years ago my studio experiences taught me that studio monitors, not hifi speakers, were the way to hear what the musicians and engineers heard in the studio, and so I bought some for my living room. It was a great decision, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to listen seriously to music.
But your points beg questions that take me straight back to my request at the beginning of this thread. How do people these days process raw concertina recordings? I think I understand about reverb, but what about other common recording techniques? Do people compress concertina? Do they use valve preamps?
Gav
[edited for spellings and sense!]
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It's a little hard to tell, the level was quite low on both, but especially the AT. I equalized the volume for a more direct comparison, and the Russian mics were quite a bit better. They had a more natural sound, like the concertina was really being played in a room. It also had a bit more meat in the low end, and not as much of a "tin can" sound.
That's one way of putting it. I just think it sounds more like the instrument I know, which does have presence and a silvery quality.
Gav
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Right... think of these as quickly made sketches. I seem to be unable to persuade the forum to accept my mp3s, so the links go somewhere else. Neither of these files have been eq'd, compressed or had any kind of reverb or mastering techniques applied - they have been digitised straight from the mics' terminals, so to speak.
The first was recorded with the small diaphragm AT condensers:
http://intheboatshed.net/wp-content/upload...ywithatmics.mp3
The second was recorded with the Russian large diaphragm mics (I've noticed they bear the initials ASM, by the way):
http://intheboatshed.net/wp-content/upload...russianmics.mp3
I don't think there's much of a contest between these two. The playing's a bit scruffy in each case, but I think the message is clear enough.
What do you folks think? Which is best and is it good enough?
Gav
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OK, someone asked the other day for the sound of my Dipper C/G baritone anglo, so this should kill two birds with one stone.
The full recording chain (starting with the Dipper, of course) is a Rode NT4 stereo SDC mic -> DBX 386 dual valve mic preamp -> Soundcraft Spirit SX20 analogue mixer -> Fostex D108 hard disk recorder. For mix down I used an E-mu 0202 USB sound card and Audacity on my PC. I added a little reverb during mix down with a TC Electronic M300. At no point did I use EQ, because that would get in the way of hearing what is going on here.
The file is about 2Mb as the mp3 bitrate is 192 kb so s to keep impact on the sound to a minimum.
Chris
Thanks Chris. A nice, plausible noise with some close-miked detail if one takes time to listen.
I'll try to find time to record something - maybe the same tune, if that's ok - tonight or tomorrow using my mystery Russian-made mics, and also using the ATs.
Gav
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My Googlemail fell over for hours too. Then it decided I was a virus, and made me type in a silly word...
It's worked fine since then, thankfully.
Gav
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I should explain that we've also got at Fostex MR-8HD to work with. It seems to work ok but I'm not a great fan of the manual...
Gav
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I've started using a pair of AKG C1000 mikes on stands. I have them a little in front of where I sit, pointing towards the ends of the concertina at an angle of about 45 degrees and also pointing down at about 45 degrees again aiming for the centre of each end. Each mike is about 60cm (2 ft in old money) from the concertina ends. At that distance, the effect of moving the concertina about doesn't seem to be noticeable.
For digital sound capture the mike XLR leads go into a M-Audio Fast-Track Pro USB audio interface which has a USB connection to my laptop. The interface supplies phantom power to the mikes.
I'm very happy with the resulting sound.
I'll try to attach a mp3 file of a recording made using this set-up.
Over the Hills to Glory and Riggs of Marlow...
Over_the_hills_riggs_marlow.mp3
Steve
Nice work, and a very nice sound. I guess the nearest I've got to the C1000s at present are the ATs.
Thanks for this!
Gav
Session at the Bell & Jorrocks, Frittenden, 16th August
in General Concertina Discussion
Posted
I guess that may be a possibility, with Jody's permission of course.
Gav